


Chaos Like a Motherfucker

by candlebreak



Series: My Revolution is Born Out of Love [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Deleted Scenes, Drabbles, Fanart, Gen, Rants
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27583838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candlebreak/pseuds/candlebreak
Summary: Fanart, rants, drabbles, deleted scenes, research, etc. related to my fic 'I measure every Grief I meet.'Images optimized for mobile (but somehow not for desktop--still trying to figure that one out so that it looks good in both)
Series: My Revolution is Born Out of Love [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016289
Comments: 15
Kudos: 81





	1. ART: Peter in Rhee's Office

**Author's Note:**

> Title is taken from Fatimah Asghar's 'Pluto Shits on the Universe' because this is going to be a place for chaotic angry energy.
> 
> **EXCERPT:**
> 
> Fuck your order. Fuck your time. I realigned the cosmos.  
> I chaosed all the hell you have yet to feel. Now all your kids  
> in the classrooms, they confused. All their clocks:  
> wrong. They don’t even know what the fuck to do.  
> They gotta memorize new songs and shit. And the other  
> planets, I fucked their orbits. I shook the sky. Chaos like  
> a motherfucker.
> 
> Full poem available here: [Pluto Shits on the Universe](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/58056/pluto-shits-on-the-universe)

Image link: <https://ibb.co/DLJp3Pv>


	2. ART: Rhee (Sketch)

[](https://ibb.co/wK61r8m)

Image link: <https://ibb.co/wK61r8m>


	3. ART: May

[](https://ibb.co/yBJxk80)

Link: <https://ibb.co/yBJxk80>


	4. ART: May (Process)

[Image Link](https://media.giphy.com/media/FXZG6aB6w9LB7Ajixs/giphy.gif)


	5. ALTERNATE SCENE: Yomi Warns Peter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the original scene I wrote of Yomi (called Zach in-story at that point, because Peter doesn’t know his real name) warning Peter about the Caldwells. Happens the first night he’s at their house, after he protested going to church.
> 
> My original plan for Peter’s arrest involved Peter taking the fall for something Yomi did to protect Simon, which is somewhat set up in this scene. But then I decided that: (a) that too close to one of the scenarios in [The Third Option](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16023554/chapters/37395959) by Uncertainty_Principle, which is a truly amazing fic that I drew a lot of inspiration from in writing this; (b) it was better for the pacing/tension to not have this explicit warning at the _beginning_ of Peter’s stay with the Caldwells, so that it was unclear whether the Caldwells were actually going to be abusive or not; (c) at this point in the story, Peter probably would have told Rhee immediately (because Rhee wasn’t on vacation yet, and also _Peter_ wasn’t being punished, and he’s much better at speaking up for other people than he is for himself), thus averting the whole jail thing and most of the plot; and (d) it was much more interesting for this particular story if Peter was actually guilty of the crimes he was accused of, because I wanted to make Peter really wrestle with the idea of what being a “bad guy” (or a “good guy”) means. 
> 
> But I just really love this look at Peter being really good with scared kids and deescalating the scene like a champ.

Peter woke up tense. It was still dark, and his spidey-senses were on high alert.

He listened, barely breathing, as the floorboards creaked almost imperceptibly and the door slid open. The hall lights were off, but it still got just a smidge darker when the door clicked closed again.

The someone in his room was trying to breathe slowly, quietly, but not quite succeeding. Their heart was pounding much too fast. A hand reached towards him, a glint of metal in the moonlight—a knife? For real?

Peter rolled out of the way, hand going up to catch the wrist holding the knife. He sprung up into a crouch on top of the mattress so he could face the intruder.

It was Zach. The ten-year-old. As Peter moved, Zach gasped and his eyes went wide, bright in the darkness. He dropped the knife—a steak knife from dinner—and it fell silently on the mattress. Zach made no other sound, but his eyes darted back and forth between the knife and Peter’s face. His bony wrist was shaking in Peter’s hand.

Peter stared at him. Zach stared back at Peter. Peter stared back at Zach. This went on long enough that it got a bit awkward.

Slowly, Peter reached for the knife.

“I wasn’t gonna hurt you, I swear,” Zach pleaded, his voice a terrified whisper. “I just…”

“Okay.” Peter flipped his grip on the knife so he could stuff it between the mattress and the box-spring, where it couldn’t hurt anyone. “I believe you.” He did. Peter had been stabbed before, and this was not the face of a kid who wanted to stab someone.

“So…” Peter kept his voice to a low whisper, but Zach still flinched at the sound of it. “Everything okay there, buddy? Did you wanna talk or something?”

Zach paled, but clenched his fists and straightened his spine. He might have even managed to be intimidating, tall as he was, if Peter didn’t fight actual criminals on the regular. And if he wasn’t ten years old and shaking. “You need to leave,” he said, his voice as low as Peter’s but curled into an unmistakeable threat.

“O…kay,” said Peter. “I mean, I’m not exactly thrilled about being here, but…any particular reason why you decided to deliver that message with a knife?”

“You shouldn’t be here,” said Zach. “I was doing just fine, and then-” he cut himself off. “Talk to your caseworker or something. Tell her it’s not a good fit. Tell her I threatened you. You can’t stay here. You’ll ruin everything.”

Peter frowned. “Hey, Zach, you wanna talk about it? I swear I’m not trynna take your place or-”

“No!” Zach cut him off with a whispered hiss. “That’s not—you just, you can’t stay here. It wouldn’t be good.”

“Okay,” said Peter, slowly. “Why?” When Zach didn’t answer, he pressed again. “Why wouldn’t it be good if I stayed? You wanna sit down?” He nodded to a place on his bed free of rumpled sheets.

It took an agonizingly long time for Zach to decide to sit down, but he didn’t say anything. Peter sighed. He was tired; he hadn’t been sleeping well, and although Mrs. Caldwell’s chicken was good and would have been filling enough for a normal teenage boy, it wasn’t enough for Peter. He was hungry, hungry and tired, and he did not want to be dealing with whatever this was.

“I get that you don’t want me here. I don’t really want me here, either. But we’re both gonna be stuck with it, for a little while at least. So, let’s figure out how we can make it work, yeah? What are you worried about?”

“If you’re not gonna leave, you should apologize,” said Zach.

“I’m…sorry?” said Peter. “I don’t really know what I’m sorry _for_ , but-”

“Not to me.” Zach looked at him like he was an idiot. “To the Caldwells.”

Peter’s heart fluttered anxiously in his chest. He hadn’t thought he’d messed up _too_ badly for a first night. “What for?”

“You don’t—you can’t say no to them,” whispered Zach. He clutched the sheets in one skinny fist.

The first emotion was dread. Real dread at the fear in Zach’s voice. The second, hot on its heels, was anger. Righteous fury. “What happens if you say no?”Peter tried to keep his voice gentle.

When Zach didn’t answer, he said, “I swear, I won’t tell them anything you say. Us foster kids gotta stick together, right?”

“I guess,” said Zach, but he didn’t say anything else.

Peter took a breath. “Do they hurt you?”

The kid flinched. “No!” he hissed. “No,” he repeated. “It’s not- They’re not _abusive_.” His face twisted up at the word.

“Okay,” said Peter, holding his hands up—calm, calm. “What is it, then, if it’s not abuse?” Peter was pretty sure that anything that could get a kid this scared was automatically abuse, but he wasn’t gonna say that right now.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” said the younger boy. “It’s not a _thing_. They don’t—they don’t hit you, or starve you, or try and stick their hands down your pants, but…you just can’t. You just can’t go against them, because then everything will get worse.”

Peter nodded. “And you want me to leave so that I don’t get caught up in this _thing_?”

Zach’s stick-thin shoulders slumped in relief. “Yeah. And so Simon doesn’t get it any worse. He already gets punished for all my mistakes. It’d be worse if there were _two_ big kids. And they’re gonna be nice for a little while because you’re new, but they’ll remember, they’ll _remember_ that you fought them and it’ll all be bad.”

“Okay,” said Peter, brain racing. “I’ll talk to my worker on Monday.” This was _definitely_ something he should talk to Ms. Rhee about, though probably not in the way Zach was hoping. “And, Zach?”

“Yeah?”

“If anything bad happens to you or Simon, let me know, okay? I’m your big brother now; it’s my job to protect you. And I promise, no matter what, even if I go to a different house, I will come and be there for you, got it? No matter what.”

Zach was silent. Peter could tell he didn’t believe him.

That was fine; Peter would just have to be there whether or not Zach believed him about it.

Now he just had to figure out how to do that without getting him more hurt in the process.


	6. TIMELINE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timeline for the events leading up to I measure every Grief I meet, and within the story itself. 
> 
> Apologies if some of the chapters before II.9-The Interview don’t quite line up with the pre-story timeline, I can’t be bothered to go back and fix them. However, all the in-story dates should be correct.
> 
> Will update this chapter as the story updates, so beware of spoilers.

**BEFORE THE STORY**

**2008:** Events of Iron Man I; Richard and Mary Parker die in a plane crash; Peter (age 4) is taken in by Ben and May Parker.

 **2010:** Pepper becomes CEO of Stark Industries; Peter (age 6) is officially confirmed as trans & May and Ben are super accepting because of course they are. (He was one of those kids who was just insistent about being a boy from about as soon as he had a concept of gender, but May and Ben didn’t really have a word for it or any idea what “transgender” meant until this point.)

 **Fall 2010:** Peter enters second grade (age 6, turning 7) and socially transitions to live as a boy

 **2012:** Events of The Avengers. The Battle of New York.

 **2013:** Peter (age 9) gets his name legally changed to Peter. However, it still isn’t possible to get your gender legally changed in New York (that only become possible in 2014 and was presumably harder for minors), so he doesn’t get his gender legally changed :(

 **December 2013:** Events of Iron Man 3; Tony meets Harley. Harley is 11.

 **2015:** Peter (age 11-12) starts puberty, and starts puberty-blockers almost immediately. Events of Age of Ultron.

 **2016:** Events of Captain America Civil War, which happens mainly the same. Changes include: no Spider-Man, and Pepper and Tony don’t break up. The story slowly starts to leak to the general public over the course of the next few years, but no one really knows what’s going on. Just that Captain America is a traitor and a war criminal(?) and it’s all hush-hush top secret.

 **December 2016:** Harley’s family gets in a car crash. His mom and sister die, Harley loses his leg. Harley is 14. Tony takes him in.

 **August 2017:** Harley turns 15.

 **September 2017:** Peter (in ninth grade/freshman in high school, age 13) gets bitten.

 **October 2017:** Ben dies. May starts looking into adopting Peter.

 **November 2017:** First recorded sightings of Spider-Man. Peter turns 14. Spider-Man saves Dr. Reyez’ clinic from a hate group with a bomb, and starts getting elicit puberty blockers and testosterone from her.

 **April 2018:** By this point, Ned, MJ, and May all know about Spider-Man.

 **August 2018:** Harley turns 16.

 **July 9, 2018:** May’s adoption of Peter is finalized.

**DURING THE STORY**

*Note: The in-story days of the week don’t correspond with the days of the week of actual year 2018-2019, but should all be internally consistent. I did some finagling to make sure Peter was in jail for as long as possible due to the courts being closed over the holidays, because I’m evil like that. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

 **September 1, 2018 (Tues):** May dies. Peter goes meets Rhee, and goes to Ned's house. 

**September 12, 2018 (Sat):** Ned and MJ implement The New Spider-Man Protocols, a.k.a. ‘Operation Peter is Not Allowed to Cut His Friends Out of His Life.’

 **September 18, 2018 (Fri):** Peter moves into the group home.

 **October 9, 2018 (Fri):** Peter's first permanency hearing. Peter gets lectured by the family court judge.

 **October 9, 2018-November 5, 2018:** Peter bounces around homes. Ned and his mother are evicted.

 **November 5, 2018 (Thurs):** Peter moves in with the Fosters.

 **November 11, 2018 (Wed):** Peter turns 15. There is an attack of a pink alien-slug thing, and Spider-Man helps evacuate people. He gets trapped under the rubble with Jason, a rescue worker.

 **November 27, 2018 (Fri):** Peter moves in with the Caldwells.

 **November 30, 2018 (Mon):** May's sentencing hearing.

 **December 4, 2018 (Fri):** Peter rescues a person from some off-duty cops, gets in trouble with the Caldwells. He is locked in his room all weekend.

 **December 7, 2018 (Mon):** Rhee goes on vacation.

 **December 20, 2018 (Sun):** Peter escapes the Caldwells along with Yomi and Simon, and is arrested. Rhee's vacation ends.

 **December 23, 2018 (Wed):** Peter's arraignment. He is denied bail.

 **December 24, 2018 (Thurs):** Ned's dad dies.

 **January 3, 2019 (Sun):** First recorded murder by “Spider-Man”

 **January 5, 2019 (Tues):** Peter takes the plea deal and is released from jail.

 **January 29, 2019 (Fri):** The news breaks about the “Spider-Man” murders. Peter interviews at SI.

 **September 2019:** Events of the prologue


	7. DELETED SCENES: The Interview

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deleted scenes from [II-9, The Interview (AO3 chapter 26)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25057393/chapters/67715594).

**Scene 1: Harley's POV**

* * *

_I wrote this back in August or September when I still thought Harley was going to be a major viewpoint character, but then scrapped it when I was having so much trouble writing anything else from his POV. It's not even a full scene, but I liked this look into Harley's head, so enjoy. Basic set-up of how the interview works is the same._

* * *

Harley narrowed his eyes and surveyed the group in the waiting room through the security feed. Four teenagers, including himself, and all of them—except himself—kid wondergeniuses. One of these people was his arch-nemesis. Tutu. The smug, pencil-writing fucker.

He’d thought that he would know them when he saw them. But alas, that was not the case. The girl in a pencil skirt with a pencil stuck in her bun? She seemed the most likely candidate, but it was a bit on the nose. Was she gunning to be a pencil-themed supervillain? Because if so, lame. But undeniably infuriating.

The guy who had much too clear skin for a highschooler, in an infuriatingly well-tailored suit? He certainly had the smugness down. Hm. Solid maybe.

The kid drowning in a too-big blazer in the corner? Possible, though he looked too doe-eyed and innocent to be so aggravating. Harley doubted he was the embodiment of all that was evil and wrong in Harley’s life.

Oh, well. It didn’t matter. Harley got to be a complete and total asshole to all of them anyway. As a secret test of character. And for no other reason. Not otherwise insecure, not him, nosirree.

His hand tightened around his overfull coffee cup, and he smirked. _Time to make an entrance_.

* * *

* * *

**Scene 2: Will the real Peter Parker please stand up?**

* * *

_Happens after Harley spills coffee on everybody but before they go to the lab. I deleted it because 1) the chapter was already too long, 2) it didn’t add anything to the story, and 3) I thought the tone was a bit too crack-y for this story. But I had fun writing it and it helped me get into Harley’s headspace, so…enjoy!_

* * *

“You’re Peter, right?”

“Yes,” Worse Peter snapped, eyeing him up and down. “Francis Peter Fairbanks the Fourth, of the Fairbanks & Welles Defense Group.”

 _Don’t. Laugh_. It was just so pretentious. People like this actually existed in real life? Like, Peter had met people trying to be supervillains—mainly normal people without any powers robbing jewelry stores while wearing prosthetic makeup and facepaint, because _New York_ —but this was still the most ridiculous introduction that he’d ever heard.

“That makes names easy to remember, at least,” Peter forced a friendly smile, and didn’t crack up, even though Southern Coffee Guy was snickering behind him and making Peter’s life very hard. “I’m also a Peter.”

Worse Peter sent him a scathing glare. “Well, that won’t do,” he said. “We can’t have them confusing us in their notes from the interview. You’ll have to go by something else.”

Uncertain, Peter laughed.

Other Peter didn’t.

“Oh. You were serious.”

“Obviously. Group interviews are already notorious for allowing otherwise well-placed applicants to be dragged down by a less than stellar-performing group. It would be disadvantageous for me to be confused with you.”

“Wow. Rude.” That was Southern Coffee Guy, who muttered it under his breath too quietly for anyone but Peter to hear.

This was definitely going down in the history books as one of the worst interviews ever, and the interview hadn’t even started yet. But Peter couldn’t even find it in himself to be upset. More like everything had somehow crossed over into the absurd. At this point, it was just funny. Like, yeah, this seemed about right. This seemed like the right level of disaster to fit with the rest of his life. Classic Parker luck.

Honestly, the bullying attempt was kind of refreshing. Comforting, like an old routine or a cozy blanket. Especially because Peter did not care at all what Worse Peter said about him. It wasn’t like it had been with Flash, where they used to be friends and Flash knew all his sore points and saw him every day. God, was it weird that Peter kind of missed Flash? Worse Peter was a poor substitute for his old bully-slash-friend. Sucks to suck, Worse Peter.

Worse Peter narrowed his eyes. “What’s your middle name?” he asked. And wow, he was really going for it.

“Peter,” Peter deadpanned, because at a certain point, you just had to stop taking shit, even if you were in the middle of a job interview.

“Your name is Peter Peter?”

“Yup.” This was surreal. Was he in hell? Had he died and gone to hell?

Worse Peter’s face twitched. “And your last name?”

“Peters.” Maybe he was dreaming?

“Your name,” Worse Peter ground out, “is Peter Peter Peters.”

“Correct.” He bit his cheek to refrain from adding, _Congratulations on your ability to know how names work! It must have been hard, with your obviously limited brainpower._ It was tempting, but not worth it to go down to Worse Peter’s level. Then _he_ would be Worse Peter. Peter liked being Better Peter, and he would be keeping that title, thank you very much. And Better Spider-Man. No, _Only_ Spider-Man. Worse Spider-Man could go screw himself and his murderous behavior to a wall.

“Then pick something else. We can’t both have the same name.”

“We can't? Okay,” said Peter. “I’ll be Peter, and you can be your first name. Francis, you said? I’m not choosing a new name just because you want me to.” He had chosen Peter when he was seven, and it was a good choice, and he would _not_ be giving it up.

“ _I_ am Peter,” Worse Peter growled. “And _you_ are something else.”

 _Breathe_. Not gonna lose the title of Better Peter. Not today. No sir. He kept his tone light and non-confrontational. “Have you never run into this problem before? Because there were five Peters in my class all throughout elementary school, and it was fine.” _See? Peter might deserve the title of Best Peter for that self-restraint._

“Oh, are we doing introductions?” Lindsay returned from the bathroom.

“Yup,” said Southern Coffee Guy. “That’s Peter, and Peter, and I am also Peter.”

Peter blinked. “You’re joking.”

Southern Coffee Guy’s eyes widened in innocence. “Me? I ain’t ever joked in my life. Not a once.”

Peter raised an eyebrow, and Southern Coffee Guy broke. His face melted into a grin. “Yeah, I’m pulling your leg. I’m Eddie.” He held out his hand.

Lindsay gave them all scathing look. “Could you boys _not_ mess around during what is probably the most important interview in all of our lives?”

They were saved from responding by the entrance of a woman who handed out name tags.

“Edward Davis?” she asked, looking between the three boys.

“I go by Eddie.” Eddie grinned at her, and stuck his name tag on his t-shirt.

“Peter Fairbanks?”

Worse Peter fawned over the interviewer as he collected his name tag.

“Peter Parker?”

Peter made extra sure to make eye contact with her and smile in a not-creepy way as he got his own name tag. This was something he could follow from the interview online advice articles. Maybe. Probably. This whole fiasco was so off the rails it was probably unsalvageable.

“Hmm. Since we have two Peters, how about everyone goes by last names? So we’ve got Mr. Davis, Mr. Michaels, Mr. Parker, and…” she looked at the last name tag. “Ms. Peters.”

Eddie burst out laughing at the look on Worse Peter’s face, and Lindsay sort of grimace-smiled as she retrieved her own name tag.

There was no question about it; Peter was in hell. He would _definitely_ deserve the title of Best Peter by the time the interview was over.

* * *

* * *

**Scene 3: 'Eddie' has Issues**

* * *

_This is from an earlier version where Other Peter was incompetent and almost electrocuted Peter during the lab portion of the interview. Deleted it because I didn’t like that version, but I like this insight into Harley’s insecurities. Will probably return to exploring these same general ideas later on in the story, in a different context._

* * *

“So are you actually _that_ incompetent, or were you actively trying to sabotage Peter?” Eddie got up into Worse Peter’s face without flinching.

“… _What?_ ”

“Oh. Sorry.” Eddie rubbed the back of his neck, not sounding sorry at all. “Is that one of those things I’m not supposed to say outloud? I’ve never really been good at, like, social whatevers, and that was _before_ I was homeschooled, so…whoops. My b. But it has to be one or the other of those, so which is it?”

Worse Peter scoffed, ignoring the question. “Of course you were homeschooled.”

Eddie smiled brightly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Worse Peter rolled his shoulders. “Simply that it explains…certain things about you.”

“Like what?” Eddie _had_ to be purposefully playing up his obliviousness. No one was that thick.

“All of you _shut up_ ,” Lindsay hissed from the other side of the table. “I do not care who insulted who or if someone died. You are _not_ messing up my chances for this thing. Understood?”

Eddie shrugged. “Sure thing, partner.” He gave her a mocking salute.

“Just get back to work, all of you, and try to act like you’re not _complete_ idiots.”

Eddie winced, but quickly covered it up with a roll of his eyes. He winked at Peter from across the bench, and Peter smiled back. _Thanks,_ he mouthed.

They got back to work, leaving Lindsay and Worse Peter to snipe at each other.

***

[They get lunch]

“So,” said Peter, when there was a lull in the conversation. “It’s not just me, right? This interview is going absolutely _horribly_.”

“ _Oh_ yeah,” said Eddie. “It’s a total shitshow. You’re the only one of us with any brains though, so you might have a chance.” He shrugged and offered up a self-deprecating grin.

“You are selling yourself way too short,” Peter protested.

“Nah, I know what my limits are. All y’all are way smarter than me—the way you talk and just put ideas together like _that_ , I can’t do anything near that, and I have no idea what you’re talking about when you mention those journal articles, and technically I never even finished eighth grade, just got my GED a few months ago so I could do online classes, so honestly I have no _idea_ what I’m doing putting myself in the same league as all y’all. Like, sure, I talked all that shit to Asshole Peter, but he’s kinda right.”

And, woah. That was not okay, thinking of yourself like that. If anything, _Peter_ was the one who was outclassed. “That’s bull,” he said. “Complete bullshit. One, fancy education or schools or whatever don’t mean _anything_ if you don’t do something with it. Trust me, I went to a fancy science school and there were some real _idiots_ there, and there are kids in my normal public school who are geniuses.” Peter hadn’t actually bothered to get to know his new classmates enough to know that this was a fact, but he was pretty sure it was true. “You were the one who figured out the problems with the electric signaling system, and you stopped Other Peter from frying me, so that’s pretty cool.”

Eddie was shaking his head. “That doesn’t really count, though. I’m not smart so much as I’ve got inside knowledge.” He tapped his leg, which Peter had learned over the course of the morning was a prosthetic _he had built himself_ with insanely fine neurological and motor control.

“Your super-cool leg that you built yourself because you are an insane genius does not count as inside knowledge. That’s experience, and proof that you’re smart.” 

“Yeah, but basically I just tinkered with somebody else’s plans. I didn’t actually—”

“That’s what all science is, though. Incremental improvements on stuff that’s already been done.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Fine, whatever. Agree to disagree.”

“For now,” Peter allowed. “ _If_ you stop sabotaging yourself on this.”

Eddie quirked his head. “I’m not _sabotaging_ myself.” He looked offended at the very idea.

Peter shrugged. “It’s pretty clear you’re trying to pick a fight. Which would be…not good for your scholarship chances.” _And if you get disqualified for not being a team player, you don’t have to deal with the fact that you might not be good enough on your own merits_. It was a feeling Peter was very familiar with, though he tended to just…not show up to his responsibilities, rather than actively pick fights.

“I’m not _trying_ to pick a fight,” Eddie protested. “It’s just…he gets under my skin, that’s all.” A hint of his accent had snuck its way back into his voice. “Saying shit like that.”

“Yeah.” Peter nodded. “I get it.” And he _did_. “Trust me, I know bullies. But,” he considered his words, “the only thing getting mad in the moment does is make things worse for _you_. Don’t give him the satisfaction of _you_ losing your scholarship just because _he_ got under your skin.”

Eddie’s mouth tightened. “Best revenge is living well, and all that?” he mumbled.

“Sure.”

Eddie narrowed his eyes at Peter. “You,” he said, “are a _dick_.” There was no heat in his voice. “Ruining all my fun.”

Peter smiled, beatific. “Yeah, yeah. I’m an absolute _monster_ , trying to look out for your chances at winning this scholarship.”

“As long as you know it.”

Peter hummed in amusement.

“Fine, fine,” Eddie capitulated. “You and me, we’ll be the best, most angelic contest-entrants to ever entry, and prove them all wrong or whatever.”

Peter tried to push down the glow he felt at that, being automatically included.

But he couldn’t entirely stop the smile playing across his face as they scraped their trays clean and returned to the lab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Peter IS Best Peter!


End file.
